Space Adventures fails to find customer for Dragon orbital flight
Capitalism in space: A high orbital tourist flight on SpaceX’s Dragon capsule has been cancelled because the company organizing it, Space Adventures, apparently failed to find enough customers.
Company spokesperson Stacey Tearne confirmed to SpaceNews that the company had dropped plans for the mission. “The mission was marketed to a large number of our prospective customers, but ultimately the mix of price, timing and experience wasn’t right at that particular time and our contract with SpaceX expired,” she said. “We hope to revisit the offering in the future.”
This revises the list of scheduled of orbital tourist flight that began with SpaceX’s Inspiration4 flight in September.
- September 15, 2021: SpaceX’s Dragon capsule flew four private citizens on a three day orbital flight
- October 5-17, 2021: Two Russians fly to ISS for 12 days to shoot a movie
- December 2021: The Russians will fly billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and his assistant to ISS for 12 days
- January/February 2022: Axiom, using a Dragon capsule, will fly four tourists to ISS
- 2022-2024: Three more Axiom tourist flights on Dragon to ISS
- 2024: Axiom begins launching its own modules to ISS, starting construction of its own private space station
- c2024: SpaceX’s Starship takes Yusaku Maezawa and several others on a journey around the Moon.
Why Space Adventures could not get enough customers for their Dragon flight is unclear. It could be for many reasons outside of not enough demand. For example, SpaceX might have determined that the prospective customers were not physically capable for the flight. Maybe Space Adventures sold two or three tickets, but couldn’t fill the manifest before their SpaceX contract expired.
The cancellation however does suggest that the price per ticket might have to come down to garner business for orbital tourist space flights. Or those flights need to arrive at a space station where the passengers can spend more than two or three days.
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In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
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Capitalism in space: A high orbital tourist flight on SpaceX’s Dragon capsule has been cancelled because the company organizing it, Space Adventures, apparently failed to find enough customers.
Company spokesperson Stacey Tearne confirmed to SpaceNews that the company had dropped plans for the mission. “The mission was marketed to a large number of our prospective customers, but ultimately the mix of price, timing and experience wasn’t right at that particular time and our contract with SpaceX expired,” she said. “We hope to revisit the offering in the future.”
This revises the list of scheduled of orbital tourist flight that began with SpaceX’s Inspiration4 flight in September.
- September 15, 2021: SpaceX’s Dragon capsule flew four private citizens on a three day orbital flight
- October 5-17, 2021: Two Russians fly to ISS for 12 days to shoot a movie
- December 2021: The Russians will fly billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and his assistant to ISS for 12 days
- January/February 2022: Axiom, using a Dragon capsule, will fly four tourists to ISS
- 2022-2024: Three more Axiom tourist flights on Dragon to ISS
- 2024: Axiom begins launching its own modules to ISS, starting construction of its own private space station
- c2024: SpaceX’s Starship takes Yusaku Maezawa and several others on a journey around the Moon.
Why Space Adventures could not get enough customers for their Dragon flight is unclear. It could be for many reasons outside of not enough demand. For example, SpaceX might have determined that the prospective customers were not physically capable for the flight. Maybe Space Adventures sold two or three tickets, but couldn’t fill the manifest before their SpaceX contract expired.
The cancellation however does suggest that the price per ticket might have to come down to garner business for orbital tourist space flights. Or those flights need to arrive at a space station where the passengers can spend more than two or three days.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Perhaps there simply exist more wealthy people interested in a BO or VG “bungee-jump” flight which requires fewer qualifications, less preparation, and greatly less of a time commitment than an actual spaceflight? Another important distinction is that SpaceX is expecting a tech-savvy philanthropist to organize and staff the trip, whereas BO and VG see that as their role in their business model.
It looks as though we became too excited over the demand for such free-flying orbital flights. The limits on the docking ports at ISS seem to limit the number of available desirable flights. — until there are independent commercial space stations.
I am very much disappointed that we have lost Bigelow Aerospace’s space habitats, which should have been available in the early part of this decade. We may have lost around half a decade of expansion into space due to this loss.
“I am very much disappointed that we have lost Bigelow Aerospace’s”
That’s the downside of capitalism, it’s Darwinian and more businesses fail than succeed. But also due to capitalism, Bigelow will be replaced by someone with a better idea and better timing
Col Beausabre wrote: “That’s the downside of capitalism, it’s Darwinian and more businesses fail than succeed.”
This is true, that more businesses fail than succeed under a Darwinian free market capitalist system, but this does not apply so much to Bigelow’s plight. The introduction of commercial manned spaceflight was controlled by government, so the free market form of capitalism for Bigelow’s space industry did not exist. The loss of Bigelow’s revenue from real estate was a direct result of government intervention in the economy: halting business operations, restricting travel, and giving rent holidays.
This was not Darwinian; it was government creating winners and losers, even if government had no idea who would win or lose, due to its actions. Government made poor decisions, because it only considered the kinds of results that they could see would happen and did not consider any results that they could not see, the predictable (and predicted) unintended consequences.
http://bastiat.org/en/twisatwins.html
So, really, this happened not because of capitalism but because of central control of the economy. It is less like Darwinism and more like the hand of a thoughtless, careless, and perhaps malicious god (Loki?).